PlantFiles: Caricature Plant, Jamaican Croton
Graptophyllum pictum

Have had this growing along the north side of my house for some years in a very tricky spot with poor, limestoney-sandy soil that gets only very late afternoon sun during the late fall, winter, and early spring, but full sun all day from about May through September.

Almost nothing will take practically no sun for 2/3 of the year and then full sun for summer, but these plants thrive there (I'm assuming it's since its sun-time also correlates with the wet season).

I have three of the same kind and all look great. They are relatively fast growing where I have them and do get pruned. Twice I had to prune them back really hard and they quickly filled in. They have never dropped leaves for me in the winter and I noticed that their roots have spread out over an impressively large and deep area. Mine started flowering last week.

I highly recommend these in areas that get seasonal sun but no frost. They took water to get established, but after their first year have never needed extra water here. These are absolutely great.

Pretty easy plant to maintain. Does like water though. As for cold tolerance, it drops some of it's leaves when we get dry air in the winter. Seems to do this when we drop below 40 degrees. It quickly recovers though. Often before the next cold snap as it keeps growing all winter long here.

This plant is really easy to grow and is also easy to propagate. Take softwood stem cuttings and put them in water and in no time you'll have plenty of roots. This plant has beautiful coloring, green around the edges, then pink and yellow in the center. It is a fabulous plant to grow.

This is another really easy keeper- I have yet to have a problem of any kind. Beautiful and yet doesn't grow so quickly that it needs a lot of maintenance.

This plant´s foliage is so atractive that the showy red/purple flowers are just a secondary atraction. Great for color compositions.

When grown together, these two colours give a magnificient effect.